IOWA APPLIED HISTORY SERIES 

EDITED BY BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH 



Applied History 

BY 

BENJ. F. SHAMBAUGH 




Uomtfnph 



! REPRINTED IN 1914 FROM VOLUME ONE OF THE IOWA 
APPLIED HISTORY SERIES PUBLISHED AT IOWA CITY 
IN 1912 BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 



1\ \6 



APPLIED HISTORY 

BY 

BENJ. F. SHAMBAUGH 



V 



0, OF ^, 



PREFACE 

As an introduction to the Iowa Applied History 
Series, of which the first vohmie and reprints there- 
from appeared in 1912, there was issued a brief 
pamphlet explaining the nature and purpose of the 
series. That pamphlet, which appeared under the 
title of Applied History, is now reprinted as an intro- 
duction to the series of reprints from the second 
volume of the Iowa Applied History Series, 

Benj. F. Shambaugh 

Office of the Superintendent and Editor 

The State Historical Society op Iowa 

Iowa City Iowa 



APPLIED HISTORY 

Among citizens, law-makers, and public officials tliere is 
a wide-spread desire for better government, better laws, 
better civil service, and better methods of public admin- 
istration in general. As citizens, law-makers, and public 
officials we are all alike deeply concerned in the vital 
questions of political, industrial, and social welfare. We 
may confess ignorance in regard to some of these mat- 
ters ; and at times we may feel that, along with the rest of 
the world, we are hopelessly groping in the dark. But 
not one of us is at heart really indifferent to the problems 
of human betterment — although it is true that our desire 
for better things, both for ourselves and for others, in- 
variably outruns our knowledge of how wisely to bring 
them to pass. 

Real advancement is so elaborately slow that we find 
it difficult at times to resist the temptation to take short 
cuts to progress. There are so many obstacles on the 
road to social betterment, so many petty mistakes and so 
many temporary failures on the journey, that we some- 
times lose heart and despair of ever reaching the goal. 
Fortunately, however, no amount of delay and no number 
of mistakes can ever wholly extinguish our zeal for real 
progress; and healthy-minded men and women will con- 
tinue to view failures as the inevitable accompaniment of 
forward movements. To them every step, whether on 
the greensward or among the thorns, is a goal attained. 

5 



6 APPLIED HISTORY 

As practical, common-sense people we are eager to 
know more about this journey toward social betterment 
upon which we find our generation embarked. What are 
the problems of the way! On what stage of the journey 
are we at this moment? How far have we gone? 
Whither are we tending! What were the experiences of 
those who preceded usf How fares it with others who 
are now traveling toward the same goal! And finally, 
how in the light of all these facts may we improve our 
means of travel, overcome obstacles, and accelerate our 
speed "? 

To speak more directly, as practical citizens, law- 
makers, and public officials we demand reliable and com- 
plete information concerning the public questions which 
now confront us and which we are called upon to solve 
as best we can. For example, we desire exact and full 
information on such questions as home rule, the initiative 
and referendum, equal suffrage, the selection and re- 
moval of public officials, the merit system, pension sys- 
tems, the regulation of public utilities, child labor, and 
poor relief. 

Moreover, the data and other information sought with 
reference to these questions are, first of all, the plain 
facts gathered through careful investigation from the 
history of our own State, from contemporary experience 
in other States, and from selected foreign sources; 
second, the expert interpretation of all the facts collect- 
ed; third, the expert definition of regulation, legislation, 
and administration ; and, finally, the application of these 
standards of legislation and administration to existing 
needs and conditions. 



APPLIED HISTORY 7 

It is to supply citizens, law-makers, and public of- 
ficials with just such data and other information that 
The State Historical Society of Iowa has undertaken to 
compile and publish a series of papers under the title of 
"Applied History" — which may be defined as the use of 
the scientific knowledge of history and experience in ef- 
forts to solve present problems of human betterment. 
As thus defined Applied History comprehends impartial 
investigation, scientific interpretation, and expert defini- 
tion and application of standards : it frankly recognizes 
the fact that public service to be efficient must be guided 
by open-minded experts — by men governed by knowl- 
edge, reason, and high-mindedness. 

Applied History views the past as a vast social labo- 
ratory in which experiments in politics and human wel- 
fare are daily being set and tested on a most elaborate 
scale. Moreover, in this human laboratory the conditions 
are real conditions, the factors are real men and women, 
and the varied relations and combinations or conditions 
and factors are always those of real life. 

Now it is evident that nowhere have the conditions 
for social and political experimentation been more varied 
nor the results more accessible than in our own Amer- 
ican Commonwealths. Here the records are marvelously 
rich in experiments in civil and criminal law, in the ap- 
plication of constitutional limitations, in labor legisla- 
tion, in the regulation of common carriers and public 
utilities, in taxation, in the administration of roads, in 
domestic relations, in the protection of women and chil- 
dren, in the conservation of health, in the maintenance of 



8 APPLIED HISTORY 

order, in the exploitation of natural resources, in the pro- 
motion of industry, and in the democratization of edu- 
cation and politics. To wisely use the results of all these 
experiments in efforts to solve the problems which con- 
front each generation is to carry out a program of 
Applied History. 

Applied History is simply the use of the creative 
power of scientific knowledge in politics and administra- 
tion. Scientific farming has greatly increased the yield 
of the soil. Scientific mining has greatly increased the 
output of the mine. Scientific forestry has greatly con- 
served the woodlands. Scientific hygiene has greatly 
conserved the health and life of the people. Scientific 
engineering has overcome the most stubborn obstacles of 
nature. Can any one doubt that some day scientific his- 
tory, scientific legislation, and scientific administration 
will be able to boast of a similar record of accomplish- 
ment? 

The foundation upon which Applied History rests is 
the scientific law of the continuity of history — a law 
which asserts that ''every human institution, every gen- 
erally accepted idea, every important invention, is but the 
summation of long lines of progress". Indeed, it is the 
recognized validity of this law that affords substantial 
assurance that Applied History is not a dream but a 
sound and intelligent method of interrogating the past 
in the light of the conditions of the present and the ob- 
vious needs of the immediate future to the end that a 
rational program of progress may be outlined and fol- 
lowed in legislation and administration. 



APPLIED HISTORY 9 

Applied History is, indeed, the natural outcome of 
scientific history, itself the inevitable result of the devel- 
opment of the newer anthropological studies — especially 
archaeology, ethnology, sociology, politics and adminis- 
tration, economics, comparative religion, and social psy- 
chology. In fact, these social sciences, which have 
developed so marvelously under the inspiration of the 
doctrine of evolution, have involved historical study in a 
revolutionary process which is giving birth to a ''New 
History". 

The first advances of the social sciences were opposed 
by the more orthodox historians : they seemed fearful lest 
the encroachments of anthropology, archaeology, sociol- 
ogy, politics, and economics should turn them out of 
doors. But it is now apparent that, upon second thought, 
they are wisely resolving not to resist but to make use of 
the new sciences in the development of new viewpoints 
in history. 

It is commonplace to say that we are in the midst of 
new conditions : every one seems to be more or less con- 
scious of the fact that times have changed. Moreover, 
with a knowledge of man and of the world immensely 
greater than ever before * * society is to-day engaged in a 
tremendous and unprecedented effort to better itself in 
manifold ways." Mankind has, indeed, embarked upon a 
career of social readjustment in the course of which his- 
tory is to serve as "a guide-post to betterment" rather 
than a "barrier cast across the way of progress". 

Henceforth the New History, leavened and enriched 
by the products of political and social science, promises 



10 APPLIED HISTORY 

to play a much more important role in the intellectual 
life and progress of mankind. The past will be brought 
into direct relations with the present; and the ''fitting 
intervals" by which historians have separated their 
studies from the near-at-hand will disappear. The pres- 
ent, which "has hitherto been the willing victim of the 
past", will now ''turn on the past and exploit it in the 
interests of advance ' ' ; and historians who have hitherto 
entertained "other notions of their functions" will "fur- 
nish us with what lies behind our great contemporaneous, 
task of human betterment".* 

History, like all other studies, has constantly under- 
gone changes — changes in subject-matter, changes in 
methods of investigation, changes in presentation^ 
changes in viewpoint, and changes in interpretation. 
Indeed, it may be said that no phase of man's record has 
been fully and finally written. Even the manuscripts of 
the most critical are already worn with erasures or 
blurred with corrections. Old versions are revised, and 
new chapters are added; and the latest chapter in the 
history of historical study is what has above been defined 
as Applied History. 

For untold ages of biologic time man's progress was 
recorded only in his animal l)ody — a most fascinating 
source-book of origins but recently discovered. More- 
over, it is a remarkable fact that the discovery of this 
record of man's earliest and most ancient history was 
made not in the library by historians, but in the labora- 



* See James Harvey Robinson's The New Eistory. This is a most stimulating 
collection of essays illustrating the modern historical outlook. 



APPLIED HISTORY 11 

tory by students of natural science — by Darwin and 
Haeckel, by Wallace and Weismann, by Spencer and 
Huxley: names still unknown to the literature of much 
orthodox history. 

With the development of the art of language, history 
first appears as oral tradition; then as a literature of 
story and mythology; and finally as a more prosaic rec- 
ord of things that actually occurred. In recent times 
historical study has become more and more scientific: 
not content with finding out what has actually transpired, 
historians have seriously endeavored to explain how in 
fact things have come about. And now in our own day — 
as if in response to the spirit of an age that likes to call 
itself practical — history becomes up-to-date by bringing 
itself down to date, and ventures to suggest a program 
of what should come to pass on the morrow. That is to 
say, it is now proposed to apply the scientific knowledge 
of history in working out a rational program of human 
progress in government and administration. 

Nor should the relations of education and Applied 
History as joint agents of social betterment be over- 
looked ; for the battles of real progress have always been 
won by the forces of education — especially higher edu- 
cation. In this connection it is worth remembering that 
in Iowa we have a State-supported University with a 
College of Applied Science, and a State-supported Col- 
lege of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts with an Experi- 
ment Station and a Highway Commission. Is there any 
good reason why we should not have in this State a Col- 
lege of Applied Political and Social Science with a de- 



12 APPLIED HISTORY 

partment for the extension of political education! The 
successful operation of such a college would certainly 
help to make our State a better place to live in politically 
and socially. Moreover, such a college, with courses cor- 
related with the applied sciences of engineering and 
medicine, would be in a position to furnish the trained 
experts whose services are so necessary to efficiency in 
public administration. Why should the State afford 
special facilities for training lawyers, doctors, engineers, 
agriculturists, and dairymen, and at the same time neg- 
lect the training of men and women for public service? 
It is utterly futile for us to talk about high-minded 
citizenship and ideals in public service without seriously 
endeavoring to provide that special training which will 
make men really capable and efficient public servants. 
Field work is as important and short courses as prac- 
ticable in politics and administration as in agriculture 
and the industrial arts. 

State institutions, like high-minded citizens, should be 
dominated by a zeal for public service : they should show 
a lively interest in the public welfare. And so, in bring- 
ing the history of our Commonwealth down to the present 
hour, in conducting scientific researches along lines of 
political, economic, and social developments, and in pro- 
jecting a series of publications on Applied History, in 
which the language of the scientific investigator is trans- 
lated into more popular form. The State Historical 
Society of Iowa aims to make a direct contribution to the 
public welfare by linking the public with the results of 
scientific research in political and social science. 



APPLIED HISTORY 13 

To outline and conduct investigations for purposes of 
Applied History is a difficult and exacting task. Research 
is always serious business. But when the results may 
possibly be used as a basis of constructive legisla- 
tion, the investigation must be thorough, impartial, ac- 
curate, and scientific to the last degree. There must be 
no superficial examination of the sources, no intellectual 
juggling with complex data, no smothering of undesirable 
facts, no partisan presentation of the truth, or shallow 
expediency in the handling of difficult and delicate 
problems. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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